General manager Walt Jocketty said yesterday that the Reds haven’t had any long-term contract talks with Joey Votto yet in part because “we were waiting until after the MVP [was announced] to be fair to him.”

Now that he has an MVP award at age 26 the long-term price tag has probably gone up, but Votto seemed unsure when asked about whether the two sides would engage in contract talks:

We haven’t had any talks. How open am I to that? I don’t know. You’d have to see the figures and talk about the years. Because we haven’t have any conversations about it. It wouldn’t be fair to comment on it. I’m not trying to dodge the question. But I’ve got nothing. That’s OK right now. I don’t want to be peppered with contract stuff all offseason.

I’m sure many Reds fans are clamoring for the team to get Votto signed long term, but at this point there’s really no hurry to do so. Because he got a relatively late start and didn’t become a full-time player in the majors until age 24 he’s arbitration eligible for the first time in 2011, which means Votto is already under team control through his age-29 season in 2013.

Plenty of time for the two sides to work on a deal and plenty of time for the Reds to see if he’s able to repeat his MVP-winning performance before committing to Votto into his 30s.

Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports reports Thursday that the Orioles “are said to have begun fielding calls of interest” on superstar Manny Machado and “are close to the point of seriously weighing whether to trade him.”

You’d think it would be a no-brainer for the last-place O’s to flip Machado — an impending free agent — for prospects, but Heyman notes there is “still a question whether or not longtime Orioles owner Peter Angelos” will give the go-ahead. One person familiar with the situation put it a “50-50” likelihood. Another suggested that it would take a massive return, which, sure.

Machado entered play Thursday with a sensational .328/.405/.635 batting line, 15 home runs, and an MLB-leading 43 RBI in 49 games. It’d be a real shock if he’s still wearing an O’s uniform by the end of July.

Heyman reported previously that at least nine teams made aggressive plays for Machado this winter, including the Cubs, Phillies, Dodgers, Indians, Diamondbacks, Yankees, Red Sox, White Sox, and Cardinals. A whole lot of those teams still make sense here in late May — maybe all of them except the White Sox.